New Zealand v England: 2nd Test, Day 3 - This is not an April Fool: England may win!

 

New Zealand v England: 2^nd Test, Day 3

This is not an April Fool: England may win!

April 1^st 2018

When England were 94-5 on the first afternoon, you would not have got very good odds on a New Zealand win. The dark forecasts of some fans that England would be whitewashed 2-0 looked all too likely to be fulfilled. It is Joe Root though who, today, will be shouting “April Fool”, having fooled most of the cricketing world into believing that his side would struggle to beat anyone right now. Suddenly and unexpectedly, England are right on top and, with two days to play – albeit two days that will be curtailed due to bad light – will hope to set New Zealand around 400 to win in four and a half sessions.

If you had added that this position would be set up by Stoneman and Vince, you would have been condemned for trying an obvious April Fool. Let us not be fooled though. Stoneman and Vince respect tradition and have not suddenly become Compton and Edrich: Stoneman pushes his highest Test score ever upwards – 52, 53, 56 and now, 60! At this rate he should score his maiden Test century in around his 40^th Test. If you look at Stoneman’s scores in this series – 11, 55, 35 & 60 – you would feel forced to say that he has been a success, averaging 40, but he continues to suffer from vertigo when in. If you consider reaching 15 as getting a start, he has done it in 13 of his 18 Test innings, but still averages only 30.2. Vince is just as bad. He has now played 13 Tests and averages under 25. He has reached 15 in his last eight innings, but passed 25 just twice. And his dismissals are almost identical ever time, prodding outside off. Partnership of 123, grinding England into a position of near impregnability and then both getting out within a few runs of each other.

It is fortunate that two other players who are short of runs in recent Tests took up the baton. There is a lot of chatter about Joe Root’s inability it covert 50s into 100s in Tests – a century here would set up a declaration and make a point. And, after a superb run, Dawid Malan’s run fountain has started to dry up. Since the start of the winter Tests, Joe Root has fallen in single figures just twice and made 6x50, but never got close to a century and has just one century in his last 13 Tests, as against 11x50. It is hard to criticise someone who has passed 50 twelve times in thirteen Tests, but such are the standards that Root has set, that people do wonder if the captaincy has just taken a little edge off his game. Dawid Malan was one of the great successes of the Ashes with 1x100 and 3x50 but, his last 5 innings have been 5, 2, 23, 0 & (now) 19*: another low score and the shine will be coming right off that Ashes success. Malan’s average is under 31 after twelve Tests and he knows that it has to increase, and rapidly, to cement his place.

That England are in this position is down to some excellent bowling from Stuart Broad. Bowling a fuller length and making batsmen play has made him look exponentially more threatening and a 6-for and his best figures for almost two years have been the reward. The opening bowlers on either side now have the first 23 wickets of the match. Never have the two pairs of opening bowlers bettered this number and, should Boult or Southee manage the next wicket to fall, the match will set a new record in Tests, beating the mark last set in 1912.

What England would like is to press on in the first session and stretch the lead from its current 231 to around 350. An hour in the afternoon at most, then, to a declaration. Ideally, they would like Root and Malan to set a foundation for Stokes and Bairstow to come in with a licence to enjoy themselves. Of course, in this topsy-turvy series of collapses and tail-end heroics, who knows what the reality will be like?

Ashes 2017/18: 4th Test Day 3 - And For My Next Trick…

 

Ashes 2017/18: 4^th Test Day 3

And For My Next Trick…

December 28^th 2017

I suppose that if, at Lunch on Day 1, you had suggested that England would be pushing for an innings victory, would put on 100 for the ninth wicket and that Stuart Broad would make a major all-round contribution in this Test, you would have been locked-up as certifiable.

It makes a nice change to want to sit down and write, rather than find it an unpleasant chore in the face of another hopeless position.

The crazy thing is that it should have been so much better. If Vince was daft not to review his LBW – especially as Cook advised him to – what do you make of Malan getting a BIG edge to a ball well outside off stump and not reviewing? Malan’s LBW would not have hit the stumps even if he had not hit the ball… hard. And Stuart Broad must consider that he was somewhat unfortunate to be given out, as a more benevolent Third Umpire might well have considered that the ball had slipped out of Khawaja’s hands and was on the ground when he rolled on it (Australian fans, remembering Nottingham 2013, might not be so charitable – these things usually even-out in the end). You have to suspect that England left a hundred or so runs out there because of poor decisions and not just those of the umpires.

At 306-6 Australia must have been thinking of getting an unexpected first innings lead. Batsmen were getting in and getting out. And the last four wickets have not exactly inconvenienced Australia through the series. If anyone in the tail were to stand with Cook and add vital runs you would probably have said that it would be Woakes, or maybe at a stretch, Jimmy Anderson with some last-ditch defiance with the great position at the start of the day already wasted. No one would have expected Stuart Broad to recall that, not so long ago, people talked of him batting at #7 as a genuine all-rounder.

It is easy to forget that Stuart Broad has a better Test batting *and* bowling averages against Australia than his career figures: not by much, but enough to disprove those who suggest that he does not perform often enough against them. This has been his fourth fifty against Australia and first since Nottingham 2013. He says that he tried to be more aggressive bowling in this Test and it shows and has infused his batting with more confidence too. Many people thought that maybe he should be stood down from this Test and that Curran or Wood should replace him. Like Alistair Cook though, he has put his hand up big time.

What can you say about Cook? He says that he expected to be dropped from the team for the 5^th Test had he not made a score and there is undoubtedly a suspicion that England would have played Jennings and Stoneman – the former Durham opening pair – as openers in the Final Test if Cook’s struggles had continued. So often in this series Cook has looked totally lost. If Australia can put down their superiority to any factor it has been the runs from Steve Smith, far more than their bowlers. Had Smith managed Alistair Cook’s run of scores in the first three matches England would certainly have won at least one of them so, it is a pleasant change to see the balance tilt the other way: not even Smith's efforts have kept Australia level in this match.

Alistair Cook has this knack of suddenly producing a huge innings when he has no right to. Since his monumental 189 at Sydney in January 2011 he has passed fifty eight times against Australia, but just twice got past 72. His first ten Tests against Australia over two series were saved by just two innings of note, with just one other score past 30, before producing a sequence of 67, 235*, 148, 32, 13, 82 & 189 in 2010/11. He will undoubtedly flay attacks raw in the Championship come April, but one wondered if that ultimate edge was still there. Now we know that it is. Remove one Australian bowler. Have another bowl some overs at reduced pace and, suddenly, the eye is in, the confidence is back and, even with a fully healthy attack on Day 3, Cook was playing like it was Chelmsford in May against an under-strength county attack, rather than much the same bowlers who had been giving him the screaming meamies for three Tests.

The discussion about the places of Cook and Broad for the Sydney Tests is over.

Finally, Australia are learning the pain and frustration of having to bowl over after pitiless over against well-set batsmen in uncomfortable bowling conditions of very high humidity, after a hot day yesterday and are not enjoying it one jot. Five sessions in the field with stretched resources is suggesting that England have not been wrong in asserting that had the Australian pace attack not made it through the first three Tests without issues the result might have been far closer. Or, put another way, if Australia had been missing as many bowlers as England are, they would have struggled themselves. One gets the feeling that Australia like being the bullies, but are not so keen when they are on the receiving end of it, or that conditions are not stacked in their favour.

There has been some debate as to whether or not Joe Root should have declared. No, he should not have. The lead is only 164 and Joe Root has bigger fish to fry. Cook and Anderson have so far added 18 – Anderson with 0* from 15 balls – and Root knows that three important landmarks are coming up: the Cook 250, the England 500 and a lead of 180. Tick them off, one by one. Make the Australian attack continue to tire and frustrate itself (the fact that Smith ended the day with the unthreatening Bird and Marsh bowling suggests strongly that he is into “energy conservation mode” for his main bowlers) and look to have enough for Australia to start to worry about the innings defeat. With a lead of 180 that result comes into consideration. England, and particularly Joe Root, who has come in for some pretty nasty criticism from the Australian media, will be keen to add some payback in the form of an innings defeat for Australia to compensate the innings defeat that England suffered in the 3^rd Test.

If Cook continues to farm the strike there is no reason why this partnership cannot continue for a while longer, with the Australians asking themselves when Root is finally going to call a halt.

With two days to come, even if there is some rain around and conditions for once favouring the England bowlers, this is no time to let up or to be merciful.

Ashes 2017/18: 3rd Test Day 5 - 5-0 Coming

 

Ashes 2017/18: 3^rd Test Day 5

5-0 Coming

December 19^th 2017

So, despite a lot of help from the rain, England were a full session from saving the Test and keeping the series alive. Two Tests still to go and the inquests are starting. And, Nathan Lyon’s comment about ending careers is looking to be increasingly self-fulfilling: Broad, Cook, Moeen and Anderson’s futures are all under the microscope, with it being a 50-50 bet, no more, that all four will see out the series in the side. All four have had their career ups and downs, with Cook and Moeen’s careers looking like roller-coaster rides. What is undisputable is that with four young and/or inexperienced players in the side in Stoneman, Vince, Malan and Overton, England can scarcely afford to see so little return from Cook, Moeen and Broad, while the contributions of Root and Anderson have been reasonable, but not match-winning.

We always knew that it would be tough at Perth but, as the match degenerated from England’s initial position of total ascendancy, three players fought, all marginal choices, with just twenty Tests between them. First, despite the pain of a cracked rib, Craig Overton got through 24 overs. He did not threaten but, at very least, he eased the pressure on Anderson, Broad and Woakes, none of whom none the less bowled fewer than 35 overs in the innings. Then, as Cook, Stoneman and Root all walked back, leaving England 60-3, Vince and Malan stood firm. Malan, with a big hundred and a fifty in the Test knows that his place is safe for the foreseeable future. Vince, whose returns had fallen since his initial 83, managed another skilful half century. With the two together, you could hope. Vince though continues to frustrate and show why he looks like being a temporary incumbent: he got to a fighting 50 and was out soon out, even if it took a special delivery to defeat him. After ten Tests and seventeen innings, Vince has just 2x50 and a Test average of 23. He has reached double figures in eleven of his seventeen innings and passed 30 on six occasions, but has reached fifty just twice and on neither occasion converted. In contrast, Malan is growing into the #5 position in a way that Middlesex supporters could never have imagined. Scores of 56, 4, 19, 29, 140 & 54 have shown his appetite for this game, added to 1x100 and 2x50 in the warm-ups.

A three hour rain delay and two set batsmen at the crease in Malan and Bairstow set England up nicely for the great escape. First session lost. See out the first hour and, by then, the 259 that England needed to eat-up time would be coming ever-closer: 10 minutes, or 2 overs lost to the change of innings and then whatever token chase would eat-up some more overs. That was the plan. What happened was just the reverse. Four balls. A single. Bairstow gets a straight one that keeps rather low and that, ladies and gentlemen, was that.

Moeen started the series well, but his confidence looks completely shot now and he is reading Nathan Lyon as well as I read Linear-B. Not the man you want striding out for the sixth ball of the day when you desperately need a hundred partnership. Moeen is such a wonderful counter-attacking batsmen when he feels confident. Here though, injury and the resulting lack of rhythm and confidence have sapped him and his bowling difficulties have just made things worse. When Moeen gets an early wicket he grows visibly. In Australia though the side injury reduced his bowling to minimal before the Tests and that contributed to the soft skin that saw him ripping open his spinning finger early in the match at Brisbane. When it has started to heal it has broken-open again and that has stopped him bowling and hardening the finger. The whole matter has snowballed and the consequence is that Moeen is a shadow of the player who started last winter in such fine form before unsympathetic handling totally neutered him by the end of the Indian series.

Rather than the long partnership that England so desperately needed, the innings just became a procession and the match and the series were over by Tea.

Telling is the statistic that six batsmen apart from Vince and Malan got into double figures, but Woakes’s 22 when last out was the highest score among them: had each of those six doubled his score, England would most likely have saved the match.

Now, England have two dead rubbers to play, with cauliflower ears the most likely result, even if this series does not match the desperation of 2013/14. Then, it was hard to find any positive. Here, Stoneman, Vince, Malan, Bairstow and Overton have all shown that they are up for it.

Overton wants to play at Melbourne but the reports that he could have punctured his lung by insisting on bowling will probably see Mark Wood elevated, subject to fitness. Two failures for Cook at Melbourne could see him rested for the final Test, while Tom Curran for Stuart Broad is a tempting change to add variety to the attack. As England re-commission Haseeb Hameed in the Lions and continue to invest in Keaton Jennings – again named Lions captain – Cook may be looking uncomfortably over his shoulder. Again, it may be tempting to play Jennings in the 5^th Test and see if his form and confidence are back to the level of his early Test innings.

Ashes 2017/18: 3rd Test Days 1 & 2 - To Sleep, Perchance to Dream… Before Reality Brutally Re-establishes Itself

 

Ashes 2017/18: 3^rd Test Days 1 & 2

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream… Before Reality Brutally Re-establishes Itself

December 15^th 2017

Been there. Done that. Still got the scars.

The good news: despite all dark forecasts, this will not be a three day defeat for England, barring a catastrophe even greater than Adelaide 2006.

The bad news: England have let slip a position of total dominance and may yet lose.

There is much about this match that evokes Adelaide 2006, which should be enough to bring out several of the team and most fans into sleepless nights and a cold sweat.

In that never to be forgotten debacle, England were blown away in the 1^st Test and then, as in 2005, revived miraculously, winning the Toss and reaching 551-6d before collapsing horribly in the second innings (despite having reached 69-1). There can few side that have been 468-3 half way through the second day of a Test and have lost convincingly.

Here, England reached giddy – Nay! Stratospheric! – heights of 368-4 before subsiding embarrassingly to 403ao. Here was a chance to make Cummins and Starc bowl 40 overs in an innings and see if they could be ground down given that, equally embarrassing, Mitch Marsh was selected as fifth bowler to reduce the load on the pace attack and was hardly trusted with the ball (at the same time, Nathan Lyon was severely neutered and bowled far fewer overs than his pace colleagues). Even so, England only crossed 400 thanks to a late slog from Stuart Broad. Whereas the minimum requirement at the start of the day must have been to bat until Tea and score 500, the innings was over before Lunch.

The script called for England to fade tamely on the first day after declining to 131-4. Stoneman, at least, could say that he was unlucky – after a lot of replays you could say that most probably he was out and the right decision was reached, but a different Third Umpire would very likely have let him get away with it. Stoneman has impressed in his short Test career but, despite 3x50 in his first ten innings, his top score remains only 56: Stoneman has to start to convert these gritty fifties into equally gritty centuries. He has passed 50 in 8 of his last 12 innings, but managed just one century. Alistair Cook, in contrast, has less excuse. He has a lot of credit in the bank but, 2010/11 aside, his record in Australia is mediocre. If this run of low scores continues – and he has only had one decent score all tour – the selectors will have to ask themselves whether to pick him for the final Test, or re-commission Keaton Jennings. We have written-off Cook several times previously but, on Christmas Day, he reaches 33, when he should be at his peak, is no longer captain and his motivation is being questioned. Cook should be playing for England for four or five more years, but retirement to the farm with Alice must be getting more and more tempting, even if the selectors don’t take the decision out of his hands.

In contrast, Joe Root is a victim of the Australian decapitation strategy. Scores of 15, 51, 9, 67 & 20 are not failure, but they come nowhere near matching Steve Smith, the sine qua non of England holding on to the Ashes. Joe Root is scoring regular 50s but, like Mark Stoneman, is struggling to convert them and Australia are making life as hard as possible for him.

From 131-4 there was a real danger of not reaching 250. That it did not happen was down to Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow. Many pundits and fans were amazed when Malan was picked in the summer. His name had shone bright in 2009 when his T20 century helped Middlesex to the T20 title, but he then faded for some years, despite plenty of signs of his talent. Very much a marginal pick for the Ashes, he is another who has shown signs of being made for Test cricket, but has not converted: 3x50 in his first twelve innings, but a top score of 65. He fought his way through a sticky start and launched a counter-attack that had Australian fans licking their lips at the prospect of a quick suicide. That he has the first England century of the Test series and went on to make it a big one should have silenced the doubters. It was a wonderful effort. At the other end, Jonny Bairstow silenced the Australians by steady accumulation.

By the time that the stand reached 200 you could dream: 500 and then an Australian collapse before the Close? For any fans waking up early to take in the afternoon session the sweet dreams of 500 became the nightmare when the last six wickets fell in under 9 overs. England had Australia under the cosh, but were just not ruthless enough. And Moeen Ali, who you hoped would be liberated by coming in at 368-5, with the bat on top, lasted just two balls. Flood gates open. Australia rush through. Humiliating. Mind you, fans will longer memories will remember the successful 1985 series, which still featured a couple of England collapses that made this one look positively like a run-glut.

England still had a chance to set matters to rights when Craig Overton took two quick wickets. Unfortunately, a couple of half-chances and one sitter went begging and Australia will have gone to bed knowing that, if things pan out as they expect, they should take the lead around Tea and be able to put England in for a few overs before the Close, if they wish to see if the wobbly top order will oblige with a panic.

England are 200 ahead still. Technically, the follow-on has not been saved (admittedly, it is the safest of safe bets that it will be in the first over of the morning). England should be looking for two quick wickets and putting Australia under pressure yet, that collapse makes one think that Day 3 will end with England fighting to keep themselves in the series. With rain forecast for the last two days, they could escape even if the worst happens, but one would like to see them saving themselves without help from the weather and, preferably, setting up a difficult fifth day for Australia to maintain the momentum from Adelaide.

Ashes 2017/18: Don’t Panic Captain Mainwaring!

 

Don’t Panic Captain Mainwaring!

November 10^th 2017

To read the headlines in the sporting press there would seem to be little point in England turning up for the 1^st Test in just under two weeks. It is all redolent of a previous tour when Martin Johnson famously summed-up the warm-ups with the phrase:

England have just three problems: they can’t bat, they can’t bowl and they can’t field.

Of course, the first day of that series ended 198-2 and England won a comfortable series victory. Fixating so much on England’s problems, no one looked at Australia’s.

Of course, we have been here before. England went to Australia in 2013 on the back of a 3-0 home Ashes win, lost the initiative at the end of the series, particularly in the ODIs and fell apart. Poor selections, poor planning and some downright bad luck played their part, as did an astonishing run of form from Mitch Johnson, who had probably never in his career strung together such a devastating string of performances. England were not the only sufferers: in ten Tests over three series v Sri Lanka, England and South Africa in a 16 month period punctuated by a serious injury, Mitch Johnson took 68 wickets at 16.6. It was England’s misfortune to meet him at the height of his powers – his next five series, the last of his career, saw him take 49 wickets at 33.9 and conform to his stereotype of “occasionally devastating, frequently innocuous”.

The BBC has a particularly devastating exposé of the events behind the scenes in the 2013/14 Ashes, but even it barely scratches the surface. The plan to hit Australia with three tall fast bowlers backfired spectacularly. The selectors were apparently unaware that Chris Tremlett was still feeling his way back from serious injury and a shadow of his former self. Boyd Rankin was never fit on that tour and even so had to play a Test. And Steve Finn got the yips so badly that it would have been kinder to send him home. However, the selectors were not to blame for Graeme Swann suffering career-ending injury, Jonathon Trott’s stress-induced illness (although there were signs that all was not well months beforehand) and Monty Panesar starting to suffer the problems that have derailed his career.

The 2017/18 Ashes touring party has convinced no one. Batting positions #1, #3 and #5 have produced the sort of action normally seen in comedy films when a hand grenade without a pin is passed from hand to hand. While Mark Stoneman has given some signs of being able to cope as a Test opener, his record is modest and he owes his position more to the failings of others. Dawid Malan at #5 was a surprise pick in the summer Tests: again, he has played a couple of decent innings, but is yet to convince. And the “battle” to bat at #3 between James Vince and Gary Ballance sees two batsmen, tried, tested and discarded, in a shoot-out in which the bullet is as likely to hit the batsman’s own foot as it is to hit the opposition gunslinger.

There is no Ben Stokes for well-known reasons and that unbalances the attack and the middle-order. Steve Finn has already been sent home, injured. Moeen has not yet bowled a ball in anger. Jake Ball, who looked set to play in the 1^st Test has sprained an ankle. And injuries ruled out Mark Wood, Toby Roland-Jones and a string of other likely bowlers, while one of the few players to come home from Australia with any credit in 2014 – Chris Jordan – is now out of favour and appears forgotten.

Add to all this that, against a couple of pretty weak attacks, Alistair Cook is yet to make a score and appears to be batting with a stick of rhubarb and there have already been several collapses in just three innings and it is not surprising that the Australian fans and press are shaking with laughter. The opening shots from the bowling attack hardly inspired fear either. Two months without a bowl in the middle has left some of the bowlers logically a little rusty. Stuart Broad looked particularly out of sorts and Chris Woakes’s opening overs were pretty rusty, but that is why you schedule warm-up games. The aim is to have Broad, Woakes and Jimmy Anderson fit and firing at Brisbane on November 23^rd, not at Perth on the first day of the tour. Win or draw that Brisbane Test and suddenly the momentum of the series will change.

Already there are some small signs that suggest that maybe things are not so bad after all. No batsman has yet scored a century, but there have been two near misses. Mark Stoneman has 3x50 in three innings. Six batsmen have registered a fifty, while Malan already has two in three innings and Jonny Bairstow has only been dismissed once so far in three innings.

Of the attack, Jimmy Anderson looks in superb form. His 7 wickets have so far cost under 10 each. Chris Woakes  has run through the Cricket Australia XI top order and wild cards Crane and Overton, who both probably expected to spend two months carrying drinks, have also taken wickets and shown some promising form. And, before his injury, Jake Ball’s accuracy and economy were very impressive.

Australia’s first-choice attack looks fearsome, but the reserves are thin and much depends Pat Cummins, whose injury record is horrific. There are also questions about at least two places in the top seven. At the same time, Australia’s median innings total in the last two years is just 243. There have been eight completed innings totals under 200, not all of them away from home either. Innings totals of 85 and 161 against South Africa in Hobart and a struggle to reach a target of 187 against New Zealand speak of frailties no less real than England’s, as do a series of abject performances in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

You can certainly argue that the 1^st Test will decide the series. If Australia win easily, the cracks in their own side will be forgotten and those in England’s team – one highly respected writer already calls them “beleaguered” – may quickly widen to chasms. In contrast, a solid England draw would send a powerful message and help to knit the team together in adversity. If the top order can oblige Pat Cummins to come back for a third and a fourth spell, the lower order will find it much easier to add the tail-end runs that are so often the difference between victory and defeat.

Expectations of England, as in 1986, are miserably low: that may be no bad thing because the opposition will expect to win easily – if they do not, the pressure in the series will shift quickly.

West Indies v England, 2nd Test, Days 1 to 4: About Turn! As You Were!

 

West Indies v England, 2^nd Test, Days 1 to 4: About Turn! As You Were!

August 28^th 2017

We wanted England to face a much stiffer challenge and for the batsmen to get tough runs. Well, we have had it, although the betting is that the end result will be the same, even if the route has been totally different.

The good news: we have a game on our hands. Yes, despite one high-profile pundit stating that the impending three-day finish in this game just added weight to the need for four-day Tests, we have a last-day run chase and a (potentially) tight finish on the cards.

The bad news: for the first three days, England were way off the pace, both batting and bowling and often made the West Indies look like world-beaters. If the West Indies had fielded better, they might have sealed a three-day win.

The worse news: after being in a position after Tea on Day 3 in which a West Indian win early on Day 4 looked to be the most probable result, they have folded like a card house in a gale. After three days of plaudits for their massively improved display and turning the series on its head, going into Day 5 we are right back to where we started this Test.

Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan desperately needed runs and both got them when England needed them most desperately. Tom Westley has failed again twice and looks unlikely to figure in the Final Test of the series. The fact that both got their runs with England having their backs to the wall and  looking set for a heavy defeat and when batting was hardest only makes it better. The only downside was that both reached 50 and then got out soon afterwards, instead of going on to a really big score. Stoneman held the innings together when it could have fallen apart had he gone early. Malan set up the glorious counter-attack that was to follow with a “they shall not pass!” innings of tough grind. They both look set to have booked places in the tour party to Australia. Westley, in contrast, has fallen-away after a good start and, with a sequence of 25, 59, 29, 9, 8, 3 & 8, makes it look likely that he will give up his place in the 3^rd Test: one line of thought is that Alex Hales may come back, batting at #5, with Malan moving up to #3. A middle order of Hales, Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen, followed by Woakes and Broad contains sufficient fire-power to give any side serious indigestion.

The transformations undergone by the West Indies in this match have been utterly bizarre. More than Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it has been more like The Hulk, changing from mid-mannered Bruce Banner into the bullying Hulk, bursting out of his clothing, laying waste to all around and then, just as suddenly, transforming back into Bruce Banner and having dirt kicked meekly in his eyes. For eight and a half sessions they have bossed the match and then, thanks to slovenly missed chances – dropped catches (plural), run-outs missed and wickets off no balls (from a leg spinner of all people) – they have let England recover from 94-3, still 75 short of making the West Indies bat again, to the point where they could declare, setting 322 to win on a pitch that is turning square and, at times, keeping very low.

The West Indian transformation has been stark. They have bowled far better and have made more runs in one innings here than in two in the 1^st Test. They looked an all-round better side and certain to level the series. No one expected England to face a fired-up side that was spitting blood and to be made to look second rate. However, the return to being Bruce Bannerman has been even more unexpected: comic missed chances (how often do you see a side fail to complete a run-out with both batsmen at the same end and the return coming in to the bowler, who only has to gather and knock off the bails?) Lethargy in the field and diabolically bad tactics (delaying the new ball and allowing Malan and Stokes to play themselves in when another wicket before Lunch might well have killed-off the England fightback). And then, when they had another chance to finish things off – England falling from 303-4 to 327-7 – and chase around 200, the England lower order scored runs at will and set up a declaration against a side that appeared to have given up.

It is fair to say that most pundits thought that a lead of 180 might be enough to defend and that 220 would give England a real chance but, at 327-7, with the lead only 158, West Indies seemed to have given up already despite the fact that batting suddenly looked well-nigh impossible, with the ball jagging everywhere. By the time that Moeen was dismissed for a rapid 82, the game was genuinely up and the et tu brute, was the 46 added in 11 overs by Woakes and Broad, as Joe Root set about planning the unlikeliest of declarations. With most pundits thinking that England needed to score 350 to stand a chance – and that it would be a tough ask for the batting to get that many – to be able to declare at 490-8 was just ridiculous.

Moeen Ali, who has been in red-hot bowling form this summer, now has a worn, fifth-day pitch, offering extravagant turn and some variable bounce, with a lot of rough outside the left-hander’s off stump. Despite his reputation for disliking the pressure of being expected to win a game in the fourth innings, he has every chance of compensating for a poor first innings bowling performance and being the match winner.

Of the twenty-one successful fourth innings chases at the ground, only twice has a side scored more than 220 to win at Headingley – one of those was Don Bradman’s legendary chase of 404-3 to win in 1948 and the other was a dead rubber in the 2001 Ashes, with Australia perhaps not quite straining every sinew to win and Mark Butcher playing the innings of his life.

More alarming for the West Indies is that fact that the highest fourth innings score to draw a Test at Headingly is England’s 238-6 against Pakistan in 1974 and that that Test was the only time that a side has batted out more than the minimum 96 overs that the West Indies will have to face to force a draw in a Headingley Test. Three sides have though faced more than 96 overs in the fourth innings at Headingley when failing to avoid defeat.

Of the nineteen fourth innings chases to end in defeat at Headingley, the median innings length was just 62 overs.

In other words, unless the 2017 West Indians can match something that only Bradman’s Invincibles have done and score 322 to win a Headingley Test, it is hard to see any other result than an England win some time around Tea.

West Indies v England, 1st Test, Day 1: Opportunities Missed for Both Sides

 

West Indies v England, 1^st Test, Day 1: Opportunities Missed for Both Sides

August 17^th 2017

This was a day of contrasting emotions. I woke up in Denver to find England 44-2 and in some strife. By the time that I had got back from a visit to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science it was 348-3 and it was the West Indies with the headache.

Day 1 has suggested that this series will be as one-sided as we feared that it would.

It has also continued the trend from the summer of the side that bats first dominating the match. There though, similarities end. In the South Africa series each first day was tightly contested and it was unclear which was the side that was on top. After the first half hour this was simply a one-sided massacre.

England really needed Stoneman, Westley and Malan to make a score against searching bowling. Instead, after just 7.3 overs it was 39-2 and both Stoneman and Westley had gone for single figures. There is some debate over the Stoneman dismissal: fans say that he got possibly the ball of the day; detractors, that his shot to attempt to deal with it was not exactly one to be proud of. Westley shuffled across his stumps, got hit and somehow seemed to get away with it until the West Indians decided finally to review. After a promising start, Westley’s returns have diminished to the point that he seems unlikely to see out the series: 25, 59, 29, 9, 8. Undoubtedly he will have the 2^nd Test – maybe, if he is lucky, a second innings here too, but that looks increasingly doubtful – to make a score but, if he cannot seal his place then, the selectors may have no alternative but to play a replacement in the 3^rd Test. Stoneman is in a similar position: he will get two Tests but, if he cannot make a score, his replacement will be most likely to get the final Test of this series.

The Stoneman debate is an interesting one. His career average is significantly under 35. Supporters point out that he had five poor years initially, before suddenly and gloriously coming good and that his career average is adversely affected both by his slow start and by having to play at Chester-le-Street. These facts are used to carry his case over Jennings. Curiously though, exactly the same applies to Jennings: his early seasons in the county game were tough before he suddenly and gloriously came good – his figures in 2016/17, both the county season and then with the Lions and with England, broke no argument. He also has made big runs at Chester-le-Street and, what is more, unlike Stoneman, stayed on, even when Durham were relegated.

For the sake of England’s success and the sanity of the selectors, let us hope that Stoneman scores big either in a potential second innings here or in the 2^nd Test, although many of Alistair Cook’s failed partners started with a century in their first or second Test.

A look at the list of opening combinations – 14 of them in five years since Andrew Strauss retired – is salutary:

	Year(s)	Innings	No.	Runs	Best	Average	Run Rate	100	50
AN Cook, H Hameed	2016-2016	5	0	338	180	67.60	2.47	1	1
NRD Compton, AN Cook	2012-2013	17	1	927	231	57.93	2.69	3	3
AN Cook, BM Duckett	2016-2016	4	0	154	100	38.50	3.58	1	0
MM Ali, AN Cook	2015-2015	5	0	183	116	36.60	2.71	1	0
AN Cook, AD Hales	2015-2016	20	0	684	126	34.20	3.08	1	4
AN Cook, KK Jennings	2016-2017	12	0	404	103	33.66	2.71	1	2
AN Cook, SD Robson	2014-2014	11	0	355	66	32.27	2.76	0	2
AN Cook, A Lyth	2015-2015	13	0	402	177	30.92	2.83	1	0
AN Cook, JE Root	2013-2016	11	0	293	68	26.63	2.22	0	1
AN Cook, IJL Trott	2015-2015	6	0	154	125	25.66	2.44	1	0
MA Carberry, AN Cook	2013-2014	10	0	250	85	25.00	2.81	0	2

Using a qualification of minimum four innings (so far three of the combinations have had just a single innings together), by far the stand-out combination has been Cook and Hameed. Of the combinations that have had at least ten innings together, Cook and Compton lead the way, averaging better than 20 more than Cook and Hales: there was a feeling that Compton was dropped prematurely and this table suggests that Nick Compton has another reason to feel aggrieved. It also suggests that England’s loss of Hameed, first to injury and then to poor form, has been a tragedy, although it is fair to point out that if you take out that opening partnership of 180 at Rajkot, the figures for Cook and Hameed, while still decent, are a little less spectacular. Time will tell if Rajkot was a fluke or standard issue, as Hameed will surely go to Australia if he shows any form at all.

On commentary, Sir Geoffrey made a very good and quite alarming point. England have gone down the list of reserves as injuries and loss of form have robbed them of players. With just two more Tests to go after this one, if Stoneman and Westley cannot make a case to go to Australia, who DO you pick now? The Duckett (and, to a certain extent, the Jennings) experiment show that you cannot pluck a batsman out of Division 2 cricket and expect him to step up easily, ruling out many of the suggested candidates that have been proposed.

However, once Stoneman and Westley were dismissed, we returned to the traditions of the summer. All through the South Africa series, once the bowlers got rid of #2 and #3 with minimal bother, #4 and lower led the counter-attack. And that is exactly what we got again. With at least one, four-ball an over, Cook and Root raced along. Soon, 39-2 was just a distant memory and the West Indies bowling was disintegrating.

Even if you were an England fan it was slightly disheartening: you wanted Cook and Root to show their class against a searching examination and win through; instead, they seemed to get some gentle middle practice. It told us nothing about playing against the pink ball. It told us nothing that we did not know about Cook and Root. And it made the failures of Stoneman and Westley to register a score even more disappointing because there was a century there for the taking if they had seen off the new ball. Maybe a century against such friendly bowling would have meant little, but one talent that a Test batsman needs is to be able to take advantage and get greedy when the going is good.

With both batsmen past their century and the 250 partnership just a nudge into the deep away, Kumar Roach tried something new and radical – a straight ball! Joe Root, possibly taken by surprise, missed obligingly and the ball castled him.

Enter the third batsman under real pressure: Dawid Malan. With Alex Hales seemly making an unarguable case to bat at #5 and the return of Chris Woakes just a matter of time – the betting is that he will play the 2^nd Test, with a return for Hales potentially in the 3^rd – Malan’s hold on his place is getting as tenuous as the Martian atmosphere. Off the mark. Poorly executed cut shot. Straight into the hands of Dowrich at slip. And straight through. Malan survived and proceeded to take advantage of more loose bowling. He will have sterner tests, but 28* at the Close and accompanying Cook to his 150 will do for a start.

Malan may have no better chance to get a Test century: insipid bowling in friendly conditions. Tomorrow he can come back, bed in and try to make an imposing score to seal his place on the flight to Australia.

Cook, in contrast, has the chance to make a point. Over the last two years there have been plenty of 50s, but only two centuries, neither of them one of those big, daddy hundreds that he was so well known for. Cook must know that 200 is on. He must be aware that an even bigger score is on. A Cook double century will serve notice that his appetite for huge scores is still as large as ever. However weak the opposition, Australia will take notice.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. If England see off the initial thrust, the potential is there for some individual landmarks before a declaration around Tea. Jimmy Anderson might be quite looking forward to getting his hands on a new pink ball, under lights, with a total near 600 behind him. Surely though the West Indies cannot be this poor again, can they?